We were delighted to host a food research event on 18 October 2023, focusing on PGRs and ECRs with research that spanned our cluster domains.
We started with a great talk from SBS PhD Tutor Ellen Bennett on CV building, which included sage advice on finding the right balance between opportunities to get involved and broaden your networks, and other commitments (including your PhD!), well-being, home-life balance, and so on. Ellen also provided helpful sign-posts to who to speak to and ways to get involved.
We then had three research presentations with some lively Q&A, featuring CHEFS visiting PhD student Andrey Sgorla, SWEFS GTA PhD student Ufuoma Arangebi, and SHARe ECR lecturer Jordan Beaumont. Full titles and abstracts below.
Thanks to everyone who joined in!
Andrey Sgorla
Entrepreneurship fermented in the bottle: The artisan brewer: authenticity, passion and connection to the territory
The growth of craft breweries boosts entrepreneurship, values manual work, and strengthens the local economy. The narratives of master brewers highlight the authenticity of the products, the passion for the work, and the production techniques, emphasizing the origin of the ingredients and the connection with their places of production, conferring uniqueness and quality. Consumers’ growing interest in high-quality beers and unique flavors drives beer tourism and integration into gastronomy. The constant search for new flavors drives the brewing sector. The expansion of hop plantations makes it possible to produce exclusive recipes, emphasizing local identity, fostering innovation in production processes, and creating new styles. At the same time, breweries are adopting sustainable practices, considering raw materials, ingredients, energy, packaging, and waste management, with a view to interconnectedness and environmental responsibility.
Ufuoma Arangebi
Intergenerational Cross-Cultural Attitudes Towards Household Food Waste
Food waste has significant social, economic, and environmental implications. The UN has identified curbing waste across the global food supply chain as key to achieving SDG12 which focuses on sustainable food production and consumption. Households are the largest producers, accounting for nearly 50% of the total food waste generated annually, particularly in developed countries. Consequently, understanding attitudes and behaviours towards HFW has become necessary given the significance of curbing food waste in the drive towards global sustainability. This research explores how these attitudes and behaviours towards household food waste are formed through the mechanism of intergenerational transmission and shaped by cultural context by examining the familial food practices of two different cultural settings in Nigerian and British households.
Jordan Beaumont
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in those with mild-to-moderate binge eating behaviour
The abundance of food cues in the environment and the wide availability and low cost of energy-dense, palatable foods are leading contributors to the growing levels of obesity in most societies. These foods are associated with a pleasure response, which increases their consumption and potentiates energy dysregulation by overriding homeostatic mechanisms. Individuals who present with binge eating behaviour, characterised by recurrent episodes of excessive consumption, appear to be hyper-responsive to these food cues and the rewarding aspects of food. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) appears an effective modulator of appetite control in people at risk of overconsumption, however findings are inconsistent. This research aimed to further understand the potential effects of tDCS, and specifically the eating behaviour trait-dependent effect stimulation.